As anybody who owns an EAA witness pistol probably knows, the bluing isn't as deep as it could be, so they'll begin to rust fairly quickly if given half a chance. I slipped up, and allowed a small bit of rust to develop at the bottom rear of the grip frame, so I ordered a can of the Teflon/moly bake-on spray finish from Brownells.
    At $28 per 6-ounce can, it's a little steep, but this stuff is pretty damn good! All it takes is to degrease the part (I used acetone), spray it on in an even coat, and let it air-dry for about 20 minutes. Once dry, stick the part in an oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Let the part cool, and you're done. I tested it on a chrome-plated wrench (we all know how hard it is to get anything to stick to chrome), and after baking and allowing it to cool, I was unable to scratch the finish with my thumbnail, try as I might.
    I also cold-blued the barrel with Birchwood-Casey "perma Blue" just for the hell of it.
    Anyway, my Witness compact has gone from this:

To this:

Looks good.

We are getting ready to do some knives with the same stuff.  Did you bead blast or rough up the surfaces at all?  Sounds like you just degreased and sprayed on.  I am thinking this is good stuff to have on the action of any gun, especially in cold climates or dirty ones.

I am also wondering if it can be put on plastic if you want all one color, as in an OD shotgun for example.

Since it dried before going in the oven ,how bad was the smell?

I look forward to hearing how durable this stuff is.  Rough it up for us, willya?

I'm interested to see how well it wears. I tried a couple different spray-on finishes from Brownells and was pleased with the initial results. Unfortunately, as it wore it began flaking off in large areas. I found the aerosol can wouldn't spray a thin enough layer to be an effective hardened coating.

Jonathan

I didn't bead-blast, or anything. The EAA pistols have have a smooth, but slightly "porous" finish to the steel. It has the same type of feel to it that a BM upper/lower reciever does.

Edit: The smell is pretty awful when it's being sprayed, but not so bad while it's in the oven.

Edit again: I did the frame rails, also. Once I get it out and shoot it, I'll take a look at the wear, and report back.

I love the Brownell's spray on, I have used it for the past 5 years...

I have only bead blasted one gun, and that was a P229...

I did a Sistema with teflon-moly about four years ago.  It hasn't seen much range use, maybe a dozen sessions at most, but it has had its share of safe dings and range-bag scratches.  I didn't sandblast the gun first, I just applied it over the bead blasted blue finish.  Here are some photos of the high wear areas.





It seems to hold up pretty well, but like someone else said, once it begins to chip, it tends to come off in pretty big chunks due to the thickness of the coating.  I am using Norrell's moly resin now, and I am finding it superior in application and wear, so far at least.

Hey Zardoz!

Gun looks great, I carry my compact witness 80% of the time. Besides how much it weighs I really like it. How has yours faired?
       
 Just curious.

Quoted: Hey Zardoz! Gun looks great, I carry my compact witness 80% of the time. Besides how much it weighs I really like it. How has yours faired?          Just curious.

Thanks for the compliment. I've owned 3 of 'em, and have never had a malfunction in any of them, with any type of ammo. A friend of mine liked mine so much after shooting it, he bought a full-size .45 model. He liked IT so much (recoil is almost as light as my 9mm), he bought another one just like it. All of these have been the steel-framed ones, though. I can't say how good the polymer-framed pistols are.

Is your finish still holding up OK?

Unfortunately, I've only taken it out to shoot once, so it's WAY too early to be able to comment on the durability.